Heretics!

The title says it all: today's post is about heretics. What's a heretic? Who is a heretic? How do I go about choosing my favorite heretic (for your homework assignment)? Hopefully this post will provide some answers.

First: definitions, specifically of "heretic" and "heresy." Your homework page from the CnC book defines a heretic in this way:

"A heretic is someone who holds a controversial or unorthodox opinion or doctrine, as in religion, politics, philosophy, or science. A heretic believes something that the authorities--religious, political, social--do not believe. Heretics are often considered to be very dangerous people, becuase they want to change the way things are done or what people believe. Heretics make people uncomfortable. In many times and places, heretics have been shunned or even killed for their beliefs. Heretics may or may not be right. Soemtimes it takes many years or even centuries before their ideas are shown to be either wise or foolish."

Heresy, then, would be the "controversial or unorthodox opinion or doctrine."

So who are heretics? Again, your homework page lists some examples, both from the classical and medieval church as well as from modern and contemporary society. My suggestion for getting started on your homework would be to start by looking up a few of the people listed--Google search the names and see what you can find on the particular figure. Also, don't limit yourself to the contemporary figures or those whose names you recognize! Some of these guys from the early church are really out there and interesting. Take a chance and read up on them-you may find out something pretty cool. Wikipedia has a list of people burned as heretics, if you're looking for a starting place for the medieval set (a starting place other than the list in your homework, that is!)

And remember, this is about who is YOUR favorite heretic. It could be someone not on the list at all-someone YOU think has challenged accepted opinions or beliefs. What we want to hear in your presentations (and in your homework) is why they're your favorite, and how they've challenged beliefs. You may think that Carl Sagan or Steven Hawking is a heretic, but you will need to explain why (don't know those names? Look them up!!!)

And don't forget to bring magazines this week...we'll need them for the collages you're going to be making.

Stay warm!

* About the picture: this is a picture from an illuminated (highly decorated, in other words) 13th century manuscript of St. Augustine of Hippo refuting the heretic. St. Augustine is one of the Church's most important theologians (someone who writes and thinks about God). One of the major issues in his time was the Donatist controversy. I'm not going to explain it here, though. It's a heresy-it might be your favorite-so look it up! Oh and Augustine is perhaps best known for his work Confessions. It's awesome. You should read it.

Don't take the idea from this picture, though, that heretics are people we should necessarily chop down with swords (or anyone, for that matter). I just couldn't find a picture of just a heretic, and St. Augustine rocks so...there we go. It's a picture about heresy, so I thought it might work.

OK that's all for now!

The Red Pill/Blue Pill Debate

Yesterday we spent a good deal of time talking about the Red Pill/Blue Pill question after watching this clip from The Matrix. I've given you a clip that will show what pill Neo chooses, but yesterday I didn't want his choice influencing your own (no peer pressure, in other words!). Here's the clip again, if you want to watch it in light of yesterday's discussion.



To re-cap what we went over yesterday, here are the arguments in favor or against each choice:
Red Pill Pro
-Awesome adventure awaits!
-It could be fun
-The risk
-You find out the truth
-You can remove the splinter from your mind

Red Pill Con
-Don't want to miss out on your life as it is
-Kind of like a suicide of sorts
-Many lead great lives without knowing the truth
-You get more splinters from removing the one in your mind

Blue Pill Pro
-The benefit outweighs the risk
-You know what is going to happen: there's no uncertainty
-You can't dedal with knowing you might not see people again
-It's "comfortably numb", to quote Pink Floyd
-the Truth hurts
-If you take the blue pill you can just forget about the whole thing

Blue Pill Con
-You don't get to find out the truth
-You still have the splinter in your head

Obviously just listing the pros and cons doesn't catch the nuance of our discussion, but maybe this will jog your memory a bit. The next question we looked at was: Which pill would Jesus take? There was debate on this one, although the answer (and like I said, this is one of the few times in the class there is a right and wrong answer) is that Jesus would take the red pill.

If you watched the clip above, you may notice that Morpheus says to Neo "Remember, all I'm offering is the truth. Nothing more." This truth, or maybe we should call it Truth, is about the reality of our existence-what this world around us really is. I think one could argue pretty soundly that it's similar to the Truth Jesus is about-the Truth that God really does love us, but also the Truth of our own lives. This can be painful (hence the argument against the red pill "the truth hurts"). But as I said yesterday, Jesus was all about showing this truth.

There are two examples from John 8 that speak to this. The first is really just a quote. Jesus tells those who believed in him that if they continued to follow him, "you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free" (John 8:32). In other words, Jesus shows us the truth-and only when we see this can we be set free. The second passage from John 8 is from the beginning of the chapter. One of the ways we defined the red pill yesterday was "shaking things up," whereas the blue pill was kind of maintaining the status quo-staying with life the way it was and not changing things up. Jesus was all about changing things up. Just read this passage from the beginning of John 8:

"Early in the morning Jesus came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, they said to him, ‘Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?’ They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, ‘Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.’ And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus straightened up and said to her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ She said, ‘No one, sir.’And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.’" (John 8:1-11).

That's shaking things up, if you ask me.

And finally, I leave you with this video. The song was originally done by the oh so awesome 70s band The Who. However, this particular version from Geoff Moore and the Distance is a little more upbeat. And there's a more Christian angle to the lyrcis (they added the part about "You who the Son sets free, is free indeed") The video isn't all that great, but at least give it a try. I'm posting the lyrics below the video as well. They sum up the red-pill argument, I think. Pay particular attention to the idea that "you've been told many times before Messiahs pointing to the door but no one had the guts to leave the temple." Jesus shows us the way into the world, and part of the journey of this class is to head into the light and see what we find...



"I'm Free"
I'm Free, I'm Free
I'm Free, I'm Free
And Freedom Tastes Of Reality
I'm Free, I'm Free
And I'm Waiting For You To Follow Me

If I Told You What It Takes To Reach The Highest High
You'd Laugh And Say "Nothing's That Simple"
But You've Been Told Many Times Before
Messiah's Pointing To The Door
And No One's Had The Guts To Leave The Temple

I'm Free, I'm Free
And Freedom Tastes Of Reality
And I'm Waiting For You To Follow Me

You Who The Son Sets Free Is Free Indeed
You Who The Son Sets Free Is Free

I'm Free, I'm Free
I'm Free, I'm Free
And Freedom Tastes Of Reality
And I'm Waiting For You To Follow Me.

How Can We Follow? How Can We Follow?


Tomorrow's Blog Entry: HERETICS!!!!

Daily Reading, 11/12

Oh man. Today's passage contains one of, in my opinion, the funniest moments in the Gospels. I laugh out loud every time I read it, even though it probably wasn't meant to be a funny moment. Maybe it's because I can envision the disciples whispering to one another while I read this, or maybe it's because my sense of humor is sometimes strange. Whatever the reason, I find it funny. What's so funny, you might ask? Well, read on!



Today's Gospel is again from Matthew, 16:1-12. In the first four verses, Jesus is telling the Pharisees that they're blind to the signs of God's coming (in Jesus). The part I want to talk about, however, is verses 5-12. Here it is from the NRSV, mostly because The Message leaves out the funny line:



"When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread. Jesus said to them, "Watch out, and beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees." They said to one another, "It is because we have brought no bread." And becoming aware of it, Jesus said, "You of little faith, why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? How could you fail to perceive that I was not speaking about bread? Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees!" Then they understood that he had not told them to beware of the yeast of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees."



Let me set the stage for you, so to speak. Jesus is probably not in a great mood, because he's had yet another run in with the Pharisees, trying to get them to understand how blind they are. Then he does off with his friends and grumbles "Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Saducees..." Then, and this is the hilarious part, the disciples look at each other and think Jesus is upset with them because they brought no bread. In the words of Homer Simpson, "DOH!" The disciples are usually thick headed, especially Peter, but this is priceless. They just don't get what Jesus was saying to them, and think he's made about the fact that they forgot bread (and, by the way, I think the hilarious part for me is their very obvious statement "It is because we have no bread!" HA. Oh I am still chuckling).



Then Jesus gets flabbergasted with them and tries to explain to them that he's not talking about actual bread. Duh. He's talking about something more important-about what is wrong in the Pharisees' and Saducees' teachings. The last sentence of the passage drives home how thick the dicsiples were: " Then they understood that he had not told them to beware of the yeast of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees." Of course they understood, because Jesus had just spelled it out for them!



What does all of this say to us? First, I think it reminds us that we don't always keep our eyes open. Most of the time we're too tied up in our own worries and egos to think about something else that's going on-to look at the "big picture." I don't know how many of you watch The Office, but Michael Scott is, I think, a perfect picture of the disciples. Every now and then he gets it, and when he does he does some pretty fantastic things. Most of the time, though, he's too thick headed to figure anything out (hence the comedy in the show!). I'm hoping to preach on Michael Scott and the disciples one of these days. I'll give y'all a heads up when I do! So that's the first part: we don't look at the big picture. The second part follows from the first-we don't tend to look at the big picture and so this passage, and Jesus reminding the disciples to beware the teachings of the Pharisees and Saducees (such as the teachings on Sabbath that I discussed on here last month) that get us tied up in the little details and forgetting that it's Jesus that matters.



So there you go. I think it's hilarious and insightful. I hope you can take something away from it too.

Daily Reading, 11/11

Miracles miracles. What are we to do with them? Today's lesson from the Gospel of Matthew brings us face to face with one of the more famous of Jesus's miracles, the feeding of the four thousand (Matthew 15:29-39). Not only does this passage include Jesus's culinary feat, but it starts with setting the scene: people are bringing their loved ones (or themselves) to Jesus for healing and when they see every one being healed, they praise "the God of Israel."

Then this happens: (from the NRSV)

Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, "I have compassion for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way." The disciples said to him, "Where are we to get enough bread in the desert to feed so great a crowd?" Jesus asked them, "How many loaves have you?" They said, "Seven, and a few small fish." Then ordering the crowd to sit down on the ground, he took the seven loaves and the fish; and after giving thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all of them ate and were filled; and they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. Those who had eaten were four thousand men, besides women and children. After sending away the crowds, he got into the boat and went to the region of Magadan.



Whoa. Not only did he manage to feed the crowd with seven loaves of bread and a few fish, but they had 7 baskets of food left over! And there were more than 4000 people there.

What are we to do when we read about miracles like this in the Bible? How are we to take them?

It would be easy to dismiss the miracles and say they were stories to get one point or another across, and have been recorded as such. Then we can, from there, go on to say that it "doesn't matter" if they really happened or not. I would caution against this, however. Why? Because it's all building up to the greatest miracle of all-the resurrection! How can the Easter moment be true for us if we're not willing to let these smaller moments be true as well?

This isn't easy, though, especially in such a scientific world as ours. God created a world in which there were laws to govern how nature works (this is why science and religion aren't necessarily opposed to one another!). However, as we'll find out in about a month when we celebrate Christmas, God continually defies expectations. God sent His son Jesus-God became truly human and truly divine and walked this earth. Whoa again. Truly human and truly divine at the same time? How do we explain that? Rest assured we're not the only ones struggling with what this means-theologians have been arguing over the nature of Christ's being both truly human and divine since the earliest days of the Church. The point is that the Incarnation (the "en-flesh-ment of the Word) itself defied the laws of what God is supposed to do. And then the resurrection-that was even more defiant! Jesus rose from the grave and made death work backwards. Death means nothing to us anymore, ultimately, because our faith in Jesus Christ keeps death from having any hold on us. SWEET.

But back to miracles. If we hold these two essential miracles of the Christian faith to be true-the Incarnation and the Resurrection (and, after all, isn't having faith that these happened what makes us Christian in the first place??!!)-then believing that Jesus turned water into wine, or that Jesus raised Lazarus, or that he fed a crowd of 4000 with only a few loaves and fishes shouldn't seem all that far fetched.

But it's still hard!

No one said faith was easy...

Daily Reading, 11/10

Today's reading is Matthew 15:21-28. Here we have another case of Jesus breaking down barriers and surprising those around him. Many of you may have heard this passage before, but I'm pasting it below (taken from The Message):

"From there Jesus took a trip to Tyre and Sidon. They had hardly arrived when a Canaanite woman came down from the hills and pleaded, "Mercy, Master, Son of David! My daughter is cruelly afflicted by an evil spirit."

Jesus ignored her. The disciples came and complained, "Now she's bothering us. Would you please take care of her? She's driving us crazy."

Jesus refused, telling them, "I've got my hands full dealing with the lost sheep of Israel."
Then the woman came back to Jesus, went to her knees, and begged. "Master, help me."
He said, "It's not right to take bread out of children's mouths and throw it to dogs."
She was quick: "You're right, Master, but beggar dogs do get scraps from the master's table."
Jesus gave in. "Oh, woman, your faith is something else. What you want is what you get!" Right then her daughter became well. "

Upon first reading, Jesus's initial reaction to the woman may seem somewhat surprising. It's not exactly welcoming, is it? He first wants to ignore her, because he has his hands full helping the Israelite people, but then when she does finally get him to answer her, he calls her a dog! Not the warm and fuzzy picture of Jesus we might be expecting.

Furthermore, the woman approaching Jesus was in a doubly low position-she was 1. a woman and 2. a Gentile. She would have been totally outside of anyone's concern at this point. We're told at the beginning of the passage that they're travelling in Tyre and Sidon. This is significant because it was a Gentile (i.e. non-Israelite) territory. Thus it's not so surprising that they ran into a Gentile woman while there.

Jesus doesn't seem to want to deal with this woman. He's trying to ignore her, likely to get on to wherever it was he was going. And wasn't his mission to Israel in the first place? Nevertheless, he hears the woman out and is perhaps surprised by her response. He tries to turn her away-you don't take what you're giving to your children (Israel) and give it to the dogs (Gentiles). But she had some wit about her, and turned it around. It's not often in the Gospels that we see someone responding to Jesus in this way-especially not from a woman! Nevertheless she does and Jesus heals her daughter.

To be honest, I've never been completely sure of what to make of this passage as a whole. On the one hand, Jesus heals the woman's daughter and thus does something for a person who's completely out of his society-a Gentile woman. On the other hand, he wants to ignore her and calls her a dog! It's only after she responds to him that he heals her daughter.

What do you think of this passage? Help me out here!

Daily Reading 11/4

Today's Gospel lesson is again from Matthew (the Daily Office, in case you weren't sure, usually has fairly sequential readings). It's a pretty short passage, so I'll cite the whole thing for you below:

"When Jesus finished telling these stories, he left there, returned to his hometown, and gave a lecture in the meetinghouse. He made a real hit, impressing everyone. "We had no idea he was this good!" they said. "How did he get so wise, get such ability?" But in the next breath they were cutting him down: "We've known him since he was a kid; he's the carpenter's son. We know his mother, Mary. We know his brothers James and Joseph, Simon and Judas. All his sisters live here. Who does he think he is?" They got their noses all out of joint.

But Jesus said, "A prophet is taken for granted in his hometown and his family." He didn't do many miracles there because of their hostile indifference. " (Matthew 13:53-58, The Message)

The Message presents the passage in a pretty different way here (I think), but the gist is basically the same. Jesus went back to his home town, preached, and everyone wondered where he got his ability from and didn't listen to him because he was just Mary's son, not a big deal.

Now, I'll admit that when I read this at first I'm somewhat indignant on Jesus's behalf, as I'm guessing the disciples likely were. The people in this town had known Jesus for a long time, but somehow they still didn't believe him. How could they?! But then I get honest with myself for a moment and think about what I would think if someone I'd grown up with did the same kind of thing. If a high school classmate showed up one day and was teaching about my future salvation (and, I'm assuming, claiming that he/she was the next Messiah), I would probably remember what they were like in high school and not want to listen either. The point is that previous association with someone creates an image of that person in our minds, be it good or bad, and that image gets in the way of how we may percieve a person or their message later on. The people in Jesus's hometown couldn't get past their preconceptions about Jesus, based on knowing him as he grew up.

The question that comes to mind for me, and Matthew's gospel doesn't tell us, is just what Jesus was saying when he taught. What got people so up in arms? Was it similar to the teachings we've been seeing in Matthew up to this point or was it different? What was he saying? I guess I won't know the answer to that one anytime soon...

So what do we take from this passage? Well, I think it calls us to examine the way we approach people. Jesus can speak to us in many different ways, and often the Holy Spirit moves through our interactions with those around us. How are our own prejudices getting in the way of hearing what the Spirit is saying to us? Are we too blinded by how we've known someone previously (or think we've known someone) to let what they're trying to tell us really reach our hearts and minds? Are we being like the people in Jesus's home town?

It's something to think about.

Daily Reading, 11/3

The kingdom of heaven is like...

That's what today's Gospel passage is about. Jesus talks about what the kingdom of heaven is like. We get a few different pictures in the passage:

"God's kingdom is like a treasure hidden in a field for years and then accidentally found by a trespasser. The finder is ecstatic—what a find!—and proceeds to sell everything he owns to raise money and buy that field.

"Or, God's kingdom is like a jewel merchant on the hunt for excellent pearls. Finding one that is flawless, he immediately sells everything and buys it.

"Or, God's kingdom is like a fishnet cast into the sea, catching all kinds of fish. When it is full, it is hauled onto the beach. The good fish are picked out and put in a tub; those unfit to eat are thrown away. That's how it will be when the curtain comes down on history. The angels will come and cull the bad fish and throw them in the garbage. There will be a lot of desperate complaining, but it won't do any good."

Jesus asked, "Are you starting to get a handle on all this?"
They answered, "Yes."
Jesus said, "Then you see how every student well-trained in God's kingdom is like the owner of a general store who can put his hands on anything you need, old or new, exactly when you need it." (Matthew 13:44-52, The Message)

If we look at the passage, there are four metaphors: the field, the pearl, the fish net, and the general store owner. We'll return to the fourth a little later, but the first three focus on the kingdom of heaven and what it's like. A couple of things about this:

First, notice that Jesus uses metaphor to talk about heaven. He doesn't talk about what it actually is, but rather what it is like. Why do you think this is? Does it mean Jesus doesn't really know what heaven is? I think the answer is more likely that Jesus realizes we won't be able to understand it if he tells us. It would be like trying to describe an airplane to someone from the 15th century, or trying to describe an elephant to someone who can't see-our descriptions would almost definitely fall short of the actuality. Jesus realizes that, and so he tries to teach with descriptions we might understand.

So what do these metaphors tell us about the kingdom of heaven? There are two messages here, I think. The first relates to the field and the pearl-in both instances a person has found something of such great worth that he is willing to sell everything in order to attain it. Heaven is much the same-it is so incredibly priceless that we should be willing to give up everything in order to attain it. We've seen this before in different ways-the disciples leave everything behind to follow Jesus. In the Gospel this Sunday we'll hear about the poor widow giving all of her money to the poor. The Bible is full of stories about those who have given up everything for God. The field and the pearl provide us with images that present this sacrifice in a new way-the metaphors show that these people give up everything for something that is the most valuable thing they can think of. In other words, they don't leave everything for nothing.

The third metaphor is the fish net description of God's kingdom. This is a little more difficult to wrap our minds around, because it deals with the fate of the wicked-something many of us in the Episcopal Church don't think about too much. Yet Jesus says here that the evil ones will be cast out, and there's nothing any amount of complaining can do about it. Without getting into an entirely different discussion about Hell and the afterlife, let's just say that God is the one who will know who the wicked are, and we shouldn't be passing judgment on anyone else's salvation-only God can see into our heart of hearts and know what's there.

Finally, we come to the fourth metaphor, which isn't even about the kingdom! Rather, it's about disciples of the kingdom-those of us who follow Jesus and strive to bring about his kingdom. Jesus assures us that these disciples will be like the general store owner who has everything necessary for every eventuality. Disciples will be able to undergo all situations because of their faith in Christ. That's a pretty hopeful thing, if you ask me.

What about you? What do you think the kingdom of God is like? Can you think of any metaphors that would help you describe it to someone else (this is especially difficult because we ourselves don't really know what the kingdom is!)

All Souls/Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, 11/2

Today is All Souls Day, or the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed. Yesterday was All Saints day-one of the major feasts of the church. It happened to be on a Sunday this year, so those of you who went to church yesterday got to celebrate on the actual day this time around! All Saints is also recommended in the Book of Common Prayer as one of the four days to have baptisms. On All Saints day we sing songs about saints and in general talk about the saints who have come before and those who have yet to come.

But what about All Souls day? What is this all about? I'm going to quote the following from the Episcopal Church's Lesser Feasts and Fasts, a resource that contains information about and prayers for the lesser feasts in the church year. LFF has to say about this day:

"In the New Testament, the word 'saints' is used to describe the entire membership of the Christian community, and in the Collect [a type of prayer] for All Saints' Day the word 'elect' is used in a similar sense. From very early times, however, the word 'saint' came to be applied primarily to persons of heroic sanctity, whose deeds were recalled with gratitude by later generations.

Beginning in the tenth century, it became customary to set aside another day--as a sort of extension of All Saints--on which the Church remembered that vast body of the faithful who, though no less members of the company of the redeemed, are unknown in the wider fellowship of the Church. It was also a day for particular remembrance of family members and friends.

Though the observance of the day was abolished at the Reformation because of abuses connected with Masses for the dead, a renewed understanding of its meaning has led to a widespread acceptance of this commemoration among Anglicans, and to its inclusion as an optional observance in the calendar of the Episcopal Church."

Some of you may have heard in the announcements mention of a list of the departed to which you could add the name of loved ones who have died. In many churches, like Grace, there is a service on All Souls during which the names of those we wish to remember who have passed on are read aloud. It's a chance for us all to take a moment and rejoice in the lives of those we love who have gone to their eternal rest.

It's also a chance for us to remember the hope of the resurrection-death no longer has control over us. Yes, we'll die, but not for good. Jesus made sure of that when He died for all of our sins and rose again-death's hold no longer exists on the faithful. This lets us rejoice in the lives of our friends and families. That doesn't mean we can't be sad that those we love are no longer with us, but it takes away the hopelessness of our grief.

I can think of no better way to end this post than with a famous poem by the Anglican seventeenth century poet and priest John Donne. Some of you may have heard it before, and for others it may be new. It's one of my favorites, however, and speaks the the hope of our eternal life in Christ. May we take this day to remember those we love, and to rejoice that we will all one day be singing in heaven around God's throne.

Sonnet 6 from Holy Sonnets, John Donne

Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for, thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me;
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desparate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy, or charms can make us sleep as well,
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more, Death thou shalt die.

Daily Reading 10/27

"Then I looked, and, oh!—a door open into Heaven. The trumpet-voice, the first voice in my vision, called out, "Ascend and enter. I'll show you what happens next."

I was caught up at once in deep worship and, oh!—a Throne set in Heaven with One Seated on the Throne, suffused in gem hues of amber and flame with a nimbus of emerald. Twenty-four thrones circled the Throne, with Twenty-four Elders seated, white-robed, gold-crowned. Lightning flash and thunder crash pulsed from the Throne. Seven fire-blazing torches fronted the Throne (these are the Sevenfold Spirit of God). Before the Throne it was like a clear crystal sea.

Prowling around the Throne were Four Animals, all eyes. Eyes to look ahead, eyes to look behind. The first Animal like a lion, the second like an ox, the third with a human face, the fourth like an eagle in flight. The Four Animals were winged, each with six wings. They were all eyes, seeing around and within. And they chanted night and day, never taking a break: Holy, holy, holy Is God our Master, Sovereign-Strong, The Was, The Is, The Coming.

Every time the Animals gave glory and honor and thanks to the One Seated on the Throne—the age-after-age Living One—the Twenty-four Elders would fall prostrate before the One Seated on the Throne. They worshiped the age-after-age Living One. They threw their crowns at the foot of the Throne, chanting, Worthy, O Master! Yes, our God! Take the glory! the honor! the power! You created it all; It was created because you wanted it."

Revelation 4:1-11 (The Message)

Usually I don't quote entire passages from the daily office readings, but I decided to begin with this one because it's hard to describe without citing the whole thing anyway. So I figured I would just let you read it on your own!

In this passage, after John has already seen The Alpha and Omega, he sees these thrones. Just take a minute, read the passage again, and try to envision it all. It's pretty intense in the reading-I can only imagine what it would be like to see this in reality. The sense we get here is one of overwhelming majesty-the throne of God is surrounded by 24 thrones for the Elders, and representations of the four Gospels are prowling about the thrones (we have these in the church window above the altar, but in case you don't know which is which, Mark is a lion, Luke is an ox, Matthew is the human-faced being, and John is the eagle). They circle the throne and sing Holy Holy Holy all day and all night, for ever and ever (this is the Sanctus we sing/say at the Eucharist every Sunday-the translation here is a little different so you might not recognize it right away). The elders then cast their crowns before God, acknowledging God's majesty over our own (I'm going to be preaching on this in about a month so I won't say anymore about this here, you'll just have to come to church that Sunday...or check the website after that point to listen to the sermon).

I have to admit that the thought of constantly circling God's throne and singing God's praises has always sounded a bit...boring. This isn't the first place in the Bible where we find this image-it's present in the Old Testament as well (see Isaiah 6:3). Heaven is often conveyed to us as a place where we can have everything we want-not a place where we constantly glorify God. But everything in the Bible seems to point us in the direction of this constant glorification. So what's heaven all about then?

The realization this bring to my mind is how awesome (or aw-full-as in full of awe) it would be to circle God's throne and constantly sing God's praises. But until I'm made whole I won't be able to understand it-but I have to have faith that it will be the most amazing thing ever.

This post itself seems incomprehensible even. Talking about heaven is hard...

Daily Reading 10/26

Identity. Who do we say we are? Who are we really? How do we relate to everyone around us? How do our experiences shape the ways we see the world? How does being a Christian fit in with our identity?

I ask these questions because today's Gospel reading seems (to me) to be bringing us face to face with the issue of Christian identity. The passage is Matthew 12:43-50. There are two things happening here, and I'm interested in the 2nd part (the first part is about demons coming and taking over your soul-it's important but I'll save that for another time). The verses we'll think about here are 46-50. The Message version reads:

46-47 While he was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers showed up. They were outside trying to get a message to him. Someone told Jesus, "Your mother and brothers are out here, wanting to speak with you."
48-50 Jesus didn't respond directly, but said, "Who do you think my mother and brothers are?" He then stretched out his hand toward his disciples. "Look closely. These are my mother and brothers. Obedience is thicker than blood. The person who obeys my heavenly Father's will is my brother and sister and mother."

It's a pretty tricky passage, because it seems Jesus is rejecting his earthly family in favor of his heavenly family, if we think of the heavenly family as those who obey God. Imagine how much this must have stung his mother-all she and Joseph had to go through in order to bring Jesus into the world, and keep him safe (the scandal of a young, unmarried, pregnant girl-the exile into Egypt-these were no small things!). And one of the major values of this time period, and one could say still lingers, was respecting one's parents. Jesus seems to do the opposite here, and says these people here are my mother and brothers-implying that those folks over there (who were related biologically) just might not be.

What does this mean about identity? Well, it means that Jesus is calling us to remember that our identity as followers of God-and followers of Jesus-is the central part of who we are. It informs everything about how we approach the world. It shapes everything about us. We are Christians first and everything else second.

The implications of this are pretty staggering when you think about it. Our call to be Christians comes before our call to do anything else.

But it's not all bad. Remember that our call to be Christian does NOT negate our family and friend relationships. In fact, it will often enhance all of our relationships because we strive to see Christ in every person when we live out our Christian identity. Jesus sometimes used more extreme measures to make his point, however. In this case, he is striving to help people understand that your relationship with (and thus your identity) God takes priority over your relationship with a family. Or, to put it another way, in a time and a place where familial heritage was important, Jesus was making the point that it wasn't the most important thing in the world. You could be a nobody-but if you were in relationship with God, your family heritage became unimportant.

So-How do we live our identities as Christians first in our own lives? How does this shape our approach to the world? Does it at all?

What do you think?

Daily Reading 10/21

Today's Gospel lesson, Matthew 12:1-14, is about the Sabbath. The Pharisees see that the disciples were picking heads of grain to eat on the Sabbath, a day when it was law for no work to be done. Then, in an effort to trick Jesus, they ask him if it was lawful to heal someone on the Sabbath; this was a trick because on the one hand the healing would be work, but on the other hand it would be a good deed. To prove his answer, Jesus pointed out that anyone would save a lamb that had fallen in a hole--if that was OK, then it was most definitely OK to help someone who needed healing. He healed a man's withered hand to drive the point home.

The crux of this passage is Jesus's condemnation of the Pharisees' concern for ritual for it's own sake, without understanding what was behind it. The Sabbath provided a talking point for this discussion. Jesus ultimately appeals to his own authority as the Son of Man, stating that he is in charge on the Sabbath, not the ritual.

Coming from the Anglican tradition, many of us know what ritual is like. Our Sunday Services are steeped in ritual-we wear different clothes, have different colors at different times of year, do things in a certain way and order. All of this is a kind of ritual that orders our Sabbath. Is it wrong? Are we stifling the movement of the Spirit with this ritual? This has been an argument made against the Book of Common Prayer since it was written--that having a pre-written prayers and a pre-ordered service keeps the Spirit from moving within us. Others, however, find great comfort in the order of the Prayer Book services. If you're familiar with it, you know there aren't going to be any major surprises from week to week, and you can settle into a more meditative state as the service goes on, not having to focus on finding the "right words" because words have already been provided-words that are prayed by yourself and by the community as a whole.

So where do we strike a balance? How do we keep our own Sabbath rituals from becoming Lord instead of Jesus? I'm sure many of us have had moments in the liturgy (the technical term for the church service itself) when we feel that the language is outdated, or we don't get the point of why the cross goes before the torches, or we feel that moving a hymn to a certain place would make the service better. When we stick to the rules for the sake of sticking to the rules, that's when we can run into problems. The Pharisees were sticking to the rules not because this would help them "be holy as God is holy," not because it provided rest for people who worked all the time, but because the rules were the rules and had to be followed. When we fail to look deeper into our own rituals and try to understand why we do them, we fail to discern how God is working through them. We focus on the building instead of the foundation, but it's the foundation that allows the building to exist in the first place (I'm not sure that metaphor makes the most sense, but it's the first one that came to mind).

For example, if we say the cross goes before the torches just because that's how it's supposed to be and that is how the service is ordered, we miss the point of the message that is conveyed when the cross comes first-we forget that the redemption wrought for us by Jesus on the cross is first and foremost in our lives as Christians. And while there is a certain amount of "following the set rules" about this, if we understand what is behind those rituals they take on a deeper meaning. They allow God to rule our worship, and not ourselves.

So feel free to ask questions about the liturgy. Ask myself, or any of the ministers on staff and we'd be happy to talk with you about it. If you don't go to Grace, leave a comment here and I'll do my best to answer it. We have to seek to understand-that's what the Pharisees failed to do. They stopped at the door (the ritual) and didn't look to see what was on the other side.

St. Luke

Today is the feast of St. Luke! I say that with some excitement because Luke is my favorite of the four gospels, and always has been. Some of you may know this, and others may not, but Luke wrote more than just the book of Luke; he is also the author of the Acts of the Apostles, making his contribution to the New Testament longer than any other writer (even Paul, who is one wordy bloke!). In scholarship, you often see these books referred to as Luke-Acts, as it is believed they were parts 1 and 2 of a longer story. Indeed, if you read the books back to back, you'll find that Luke deals with the story of Jesus while he was here on earth, and Acts is about the Spirit working in the earliest days of the Christian community (in other words, right after Jesus ascended back to heaven). The two books are not side by side in the Bible, but it helps to read them in tandem.

The readings for today expose us to several aspects of this Luke guy. On the one hand, in the New Testament readings we see Luke's introductions to his books: Luke 1:1-4 and Acts 1:1-8. Here we have the author stating his purpose.

"So many others have tried their hand at putting together a story of the wonderful harvest of Scripture and history that took place among us, using reports handed down by the original eyewitnesses who served this Word with their very lives. Since I have investigated all the reports in close detail, starting from the story's beginning, I decided to write it all out for you, most honorable Theophilus, so you can know beyond the shadow of a doubt the reliability of what you were taught." (Luke 1:1-4, The Message)

"Dear Theophilus, in the first volume of this book I wrote on everything that Jesus began to do and teach until the day he said good-bye to the apostles, the ones he had chosen through the Holy Spirit, and was taken up to heaven. After his death, he presented himself alive to them in many different settings over a period of forty days. In face-to-face meetings, he talked to them about things concerning the kingdom of God. As they met and ate meals together, he told them that they were on no account to leave Jerusalem but "must wait for what the Father promised: the promise you heard from me. John baptized in water; you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit. And soon." When they were together for the last time they asked, "Master, are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel now? Is this the time?" He told them, "You don't get to know the time. Timing is the Father's business. What you'll get is the Holy Spirit. And when the Holy Spirit comes on you, you will be able to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, all over Judea and Samaria, even to the ends of the world." (Acts 1:1-8, The Message)

So you see, in the first book (Luke), Luke wants to lay out the story of Jesus in a methodical way, relating what he's heard. I've heard Luke compared to a newspaper approach before; however wrong or right that might be, he's trying to cover the major aspects of who Jesus was and what he did. Interesting is the fact that the one story we have in a canonical Gospel (meaning it's in the Bible, and not another Gospel-like Judas, or Thomas) about Jesus as a child is in Luke. He's trying to cover everything he's heard. Then he starts Acts by giving a short synopsis of what the Gospel was about and he sets up Acts as a book about the working of the Holy Spirit. If you think about it, you'll notice in church that during the Easter season we're always reading out of Acts-that's because Jesus is risen and we're learning about what happened after (and what is still happening after!).

That's one aspects of Luke: Luke the author of Luke/Acts. Another aspect comes in the Old Testament reading. Luke is also an evangelist: the word "Gospel" comes from the Greek "euangelion" which is "good news" (from "eu" good and "angelos" message/news). I won't go into my long thoughts on evangelism here, but suffice it to say that Luke, through his writing, spread the Good News of God in Jesus Christ. The Old Testament reading also speaks to this. In Ezekial 47:1-12, Ezekial is brought to a stream that eventually becomes a torrent. Of this stream, Ezekial notes,

"While sitting on the bank, I noticed a lot of trees on both sides of the river. He told me, "This water flows east, descends to the Arabah and then into the sea, the sea of stagnant waters. When it empties into those waters, the sea will become fresh. Wherever the river flows, life will flourish—great schools of fish—because the river is turning the salt sea into fresh water. Where the river flows, life abounds. Fishermen will stand shoulder to shoulder along the shore from En-gedi all the way north to En-eglaim, casting their nets. The sea will teem with fish of all kinds, like the fish of the Great Mediterranean. "The swamps and marshes won't become fresh. They'll stay salty. "But the river itself, on both banks, will grow fruit trees of all kinds. Their leaves won't wither, the fruit won't fail. Every month they'll bear fresh fruit because the river from the Sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing." (Ezekial 47:6-12, The Message).

The waters are those of life and healing, and pretty common theme in the Bible. Luke's word provides such a stream-the life that comes through Jesus Christ and the healing that life can bring. The healing is also notable as Luke is also thought to have been a physician.

Healing, good news, and the Holy Spirit. These are some big themes in the Christian story, and Luke has played a part in all of them. Even if you haven't read Luke intentionally, there's a good chance you've been exposed to his Gospel, especially at Christmas time. Linus recites part of Luke 2 (the Christmas story) in the Peanuts Christmas Special. Luke and Matthew provide the two Christmas narratives we hear in church, so you're more familiar with Luke than you might think!

So think about Luke. Maybe read some of his stuff. I would recommend starting at chapter 1 verse 1 of Luke. It's a good place to start. :)

(I couldn't find the writer of the above icon, but I found the icon at this website. There's a signature in the bottom left corner of the icon, though; if anyone has more info on this source please let me know so I can give the person due credit).

Daily Reading 10/14

Today we've got more about speaking. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 14, is still talking about speaking in tongues versus speaking plainly (what The Message calls private prayer language or tongues and plain truth speaking). The whole passage for today is 1 Corinthians 14:13-25, but I'd like to draw your attention to verses 20-25:

"It's written in Scripture that God said,

In strange tongues
and from the mouths of strangers
I will preach to this people,
but they'll neither listen nor believe.

So where does it get you, all this speaking in tongues no one understands? It doesn't help believers, and it only gives unbelievers something to gawk at. Plain truth-speaking, on the other hand, goes straight to the heart of believers and doesn't get in the way of unbelievers. If you come together as a congregation and some unbelieving outsiders walk in on you as you're all praying in tongues, unintelligible to each other and to them, won't they assume you've taken leave of your senses and get out of there as fast as they can? But if some unbelieving outsiders walk in on a service where people are speaking out God's truth, the plain words will bring them up against the truth and probe their hearts. Before you know it, they're going to be on their faces before God, recognizing that God is among you."

The sentences that most jump out at me are when Paul says "Plain truth-speaking, on the other hand, goes straight to the heart of believers and doesn't get in the way of unbelievers...But if some unbelieving outsiders walk in on a service where people are speaking out God's truth, the plain words will bring them up against the truth and prove their hearts." WOW.

There are two things I'd like to note in those sentences. The first is that plain speaking goes to the heart of not only unbelievers but believers as well. Even if you already believe in God and the Good News of Jesus Christ, if you're not speaking honestly and plainly about it, you might not understand (and won't be using your adult mind, as Paul asks us to do earlier in today's lesson). Our plain speaking is for the benefit of everyone, not just those who don't believe!

Furthermore, Paul acknowledges the awesome power of speech. If you were to walk into a church where the Gospel were really being preached, that would probably stand out to you (even if you're already a Christian). One of the things that draws people to particular churches is how good the preaching is, for example. But if we're preaching the truth, this will cause those who don't believe to come face to face with it. In other words, we can make God's love known by what we say.

This can be a hard thing for many of us. I know so many people who say they spread the Good News through their actions--if you're nice to people, someone might ask you why you're so nice and then (maybe) you can tell them about Jesus. We talked about this in Sunday School Awesomeness recently. How do you talk about Jesus without offending someone? How do we act as Christians in the world without stepping on the toes of those who have other beliefs? How can we be a missional people who are also compassionate towards others (and not condemning)? These are questions that we raised just by talking about our actions.

But Paul is telling us here that it's speaking that can be important, and while actions are still an important part of our work in spreading the Gospel, we have to be able to talk about it clearly and truthfully. But never fear-developing a "faith language" is something that we all struggle with--it's a growth process and it will change as we change. The important thing is that we are speaking about God's love in the first place. There are questions we can ask ourselves when we pray to think about how we talk about God.

Here's one for you: Who is Jesus? Who is he to you? What does he have to do with me ("me" being a friend who might be asking you this question)?

How would you answer these questions?

Daily Reading 10/13

Sheesh. It's been 3 weeks since my last post. Sorry for that! I'll try to be better about posting from now on...

Today's daily readings are, I will admit, a bit difficult individually and as a whole, but I'll try and make some sense out of what's being said (to me, at least, you could take something entirely different from these lessons!). The readings for today are: Jeremiah 36:27-37:2, 1 Corinthians 14:1-12, and Matthew 10:16-23. To summarize each passage quickly: Jeremiah deals with the king's refusal to listen to Jeremiah's prophecy about the Babylonians; Corinthians discusses speaking in tongues and prophesy; and Matthew has to do with Jesus speaking about the coming persecutions for those who follow him. Pretty heavy stuff, eh? But once I read each of these passages, the thing that came to me most strongly was the idea of speaking God's truth, and what that could mean.

In the case of Jeremiah, we have a prophesy that no one wants to hear. King Jehoiakim saw the first scroll from Jeremiah, which said the Babylonians were going to invade and conquer Jerusalem. So, Jehoiakim had it burnt. God wasn't so happy about this, and told Jeremiah to write it down again. God's response goes something like this (from The Message):

"And send this personal message to Jehoiakim king of Judah: 'God says, You had the gall to burn this scroll and then the nerve to say, "What kind of nonsense is this written here—that the king of Babylon will come and destroy this land and kill everything in it? Well, do you want to know what God says about Jehoiakim king of Judah? This: No descendant of his will ever rule from David's throne. His corpse will be thrown in the street and left unburied, exposed to the hot sun and the freezing night. I will punish him and his children and the officials in his government for their blatant sin. I'll let loose on them and everyone in Jerusalem the doomsday disaster of which I warned them but they spit at.'" (36:29-31)

This is a pretty heavy condemnation-Jehoiakim is basically being told that none of his descendents will sit on the throne-not to mention the fact that he won't be buried properly. What's absent from today's story is how Jeremiah felt about all of this. Imagine having to tell the king news like this--granted, Jeremiah wrote it on a scroll and sent it but still; I wouldn't want to email anyone telling them that God wasn't happy and that the land was about to fall to a foreign power. At other times, Jeremiah isn't really happy with his position as a prophet. In chapter 20 he expresses his dislike of the prophet position he holds:

You pushed me into this, God, and I let you do it.
You were too much for me.
And now I'm a public joke.
They all poke fun at me.
Every time I open my mouth
I'm shouting, "Murder!" or "Rape!"
And all I get for my God-warnings
are insults and contempt.
But if I say, "Forget it!
No more God-Messages from me!"
The words are fire in my belly,
a burning in my bones.
I'm worn out trying to hold it in.
I can't do it any longer!
Then I hear whispering behind my back:
"There goes old 'Danger-Everywhere.' Shut him up! Report him!"
Old friends watch, hoping I'll fall flat on my face:
"One misstep and we'll have him. We'll get rid of him for good!"
(20:7-10, The Message)

So that's one kind of speaking--speaking truth to power, as the saying goes. And in Jeremiah's case, power didn't want to hear the truth (and how often do we ourselves really want to hear the out and out truth? Probably less than we'd like to admit!)

In Corinthians we have more about prophesy. Paul is discussing the difference between speaking in tongues and between prophesying, and he has a definite preference for prophesy. The Message translates this differently from the NRSV; in The Message version you'll see tongues referred to as a kind of individual prayer-language (but just so you know, there are Christian traditions where speaking in tongues is part of the worship life of the community. About tongues versus prophesy, Paul writes:

"The one who prays using a private "prayer language" certainly gets a lot out of it, but proclaiming God's truth to the church in its common language brings the whole church into growth and strength. I want all of you to develop intimacies with God in prayer, but please don't stop with that. Go on and proclaim his clear truth to others. It's more important that everyone have access to the knowledge and love of God in language everyone understands than that you go off and cultivate God's presence in a mysterious prayer language—unless, of course, there is someone who can interpret what you are saying for the benefit of all." (14:4-5, The Message).

In other words, what Paul's trying to tell us is that we need to go out and speak the truth to all people in words they'll understand. This will build up the Church-the difficulty is (and I'm not sure Paul points this out) finding words that people will understand. Can you think of a way to explain Jesus and everything he means in words that people will really get? That's a challenge we all face, I think, especially in a world of scientific skepticism (and I'm not bashing science here, I'm just saying we're taught to be skeptical and look for proof and things like that). How do you explain to someone that God became human and lived and died and rose from the dead and that death doesn't have a hold on us anymore? I'd be interested in your take on this. How do we spread the message in ways that people will know what we're talking about but ways that stay true to what we believe?

Jesus warns us about what might happen when we preach the Good News. The situation was different in Jesus's time-the Romans were occupying the land and to preach as Jesus did was eventually seen as politically dangerous-just look at Jesus's crucifixion for an example! They were concerned that he was called "The King of the Jews" for a reason-it made the occupying power nervous. Anyway, back to the passage. In Matthew's text, Jesus warns people about what will happen when they preach the Kingdom message. Jesus says:

"Don't be naive. Some people will impugn your motives, others will smear your reputation—just because you believe in me. Don't be upset when they haul you before the civil authorities. Without knowing it, they've done you—and me—a favor, given you a platform for preaching the kingdom news! And don't worry about what you'll say or how you'll say it. The right words will be there; the Spirit of your Father will supply the words. " (14:17-20, The Message)

I'm not sure many of us would be hauled in front of a judge for talking about Jesus with someone. There are cases where this could happen-when you preach the Good News through some sort of nonviolent civil disobedience, for example (take a look at the Civil Rights movement for a good example of this!). It's not easy speaking truth to power, but Jesus gives us encouragement-the words will come. God said the same thing to Moses. Don't worry that you can't speak that well-I'll give you the words.

How do you speak the truth of God's message? Do you feel like Jeremiah? Do you have a language for talking about Jesus?

Feast of Michael and All Angels

Happy feast of St. Michael and All Angels! I don't have too much input today, mostly because Rev. Margaret Bullit-Jonas preached a great sermon on angels this Sunday, and I think most of you were there to hear it. If not, you can listen to it here (if you are just on the Grace Church home page, go to worship and then click on sermons). Also, here's a link to a website with some great information about this particular feast day.

Which leaves me with the question for you all: what do you believe about angels? How does this play into your faith journey? I'm always struck by the idea of angels constantly circling around God singing God's praises...in fact, the collect (a name for a type of prayer we use in our services) for this particular feast day makes reference to the vocation of praise which the angels have:

"Everlasting God, you have ordained and constituted in a wonderful order the ministries of angels and mortals: Mercifully grant that, as your holy angels always serve and worship you in heaven, so by your appointment they may help and defend us here on earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen."

Amen indeed.

Daily Reading 9/28

Today's reading is from the Gospel of Matthew. Some of you may know of this as the "lilies of the field" passage. In this, Jesus tells us not to worry-if God puts so much care into the flowers, think of how much more care God will take with us! Reading through this in the NRSV and The Message provides two very different experiences, I think. I would recommend reading each one to get a better sense of what I mean.

In the NRSV reading I sense a call to place complete trust in God and not worry-not even about what particularly I'm going to eat, but even that I will be able to eat at all! This is a tall order, too. I mean, I have to work to make money to feed myself. And for young people, there is worry sometimes when parents may be ill or out of a job-how will the parents earn money to feed their children? These are very real concerns that many of us face, and sometimes being told not to worry because God will take care of it isn't the most comforting thing in the world. We constantly want to know how? when? what can I do to make this happen? I can't live if I don't eat! However, for many of us this may not be a basic worry. We have clothes on our backs, food on our tables, and roofs over our head (although there are people in our community who lack these things!!!).

The Message presents the call not to worry in a different way-a way that speaks to me when I have my basic needs met. The Message seems to shift the emphasis of the passage from not worrying about basic needs to not worrying about being the most fashionable or having the best of everything. An interesting take on this passage is, for me, when, instead of pointing out that we will be clothed because even the flowers are clothes, the translator of The Message presents us with this: "If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you?" Imagine that-God taking pride in me! I find that a pretty powerful statement.

The passage is also summed up differently. The NRSV notes that we shouldn't worry about tomorrow, for the troubles of today are enough for today. The Message reads: "Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes." Good words by which to live.

Daily Reading 9/23

Sorry for the hiatus everyone. I'm still researching t he 12 apostles question from Sunday, and I'll let you know once I find something else (if I ever do!).

Today's reading is from the Gospel of Matthew, 5:38-48. This particular passage is the love your enemies part of this Gospel. You've probably heard it before: Turn the other cheek, love your enemies...I usually hear those sentiments and think of course. I'm used to reading this passage in the NRSV translation of the Bible, but as I said works like The Message present a different approach to the text. I'm pasting the entire passage below:

38-42"Here's another old saying that deserves a second look: 'Eye for eye, tooth for tooth.' Is that going to get us anywhere? Here's what I propose: 'Don't hit back at all.' If someone strikes you, stand there and take it. If someone drags you into court and sues for the shirt off your back, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it. And if someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.

43-47"You're familiar with the old written law, 'Love your friend,' and its unwritten companion, 'Hate your enemy.' I'm challenging that. I'm telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.

48"In a word, what I'm saying is, Grow up. You're kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you."


That's definitely put rather differently from the NRSV (not better or worse, mind you, but just in a different way). What is most interesting is the call to "live generously." The Message emphasizes this several times. We are to be generous people in all ways-this doesn't only apply to money. It applies to the very essence of our being. Think about this: it's hard enough sometimes to be generous with things like our money and our time, but with our very selves? I think we all have moments when we present only a certain part of ourself to a certain group of people, and then a different self to another group. Maybe it's a way to protect our inmost being from our enemies. Maybe it's laziness (think about a sports team...it would be easier for me just to be a Red Sox fan up here, right? And I could do it...but it wouldn't be completely honest. Rooting for the Reds takes work on so many levels!). There are many reasons, I'm sure, as to why we do not give people all of ourselves.

But that is what I think this passage is calling us to do. God makes it rain on saints and sinners alike. God also makes the sun shine on people. God offers all of Godself whether you choose to accept it or not.

The NRSV ends this passage saying "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." The Message reades, "Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you." Either way, we are being called to live like God--which means offering ourselves fully whether this is accepted or not.

Closing thought on this particular command: man that's hard. How do I even begin to do this? First thing's first: I have to know who I am and who I'm becoming. That doesn't mean I have to see exactly who I will be in 20 years, much less 20 weeks. But I should probably have a good sense of who I am right now...So I ask you all to think about who you are deep down. How do you show that Self to others around you? Are there parts that you hide (like being a Christian? This goes back to our discussion on the Gospel of Mark on Sunday morning...think about it. Pray about it. And live generously...

Daily Reading 9/16

Today's reading from the Gospel of Matthew (4:18-25) takes us to the calling of the first disciples and the earliest days of Jesus's public ministry. When Jesus started preaching and teaching, the book of Matthew tells us that he went throughout Galilee and healed those who needed it, which in turn attracted people from the neighboring regions. All of this is happening after his period of fasting in the desert and right before we get more specific messages from Jesus, like the Sermon on the Mount, so in a way it's kind of an introduction to the adult, public person of Jesus. What I find most interesting about today's reading, though, is the calling of the disciples, especially when he calls Simon (Peter) and Andrew:

"Walking along the beach of Lake Galilee, Jesus saw two brothers: Simon (later called Peter) and Andrew. They were fishing, throwing their nets into the lake. It was their regular work. Jesus said to them, "Come with me. I'll make a new kind of fisherman out of you. I'll show you how to catch men and women instead of perch and bass." They didn't ask questions, but simply dropped their nets and followed." Matthew 4:18-20 (The Message)

Wow. This passage seems a bit spartan to me--Jesus doesn't really give an introduction. No "Hey my name's Jesus and this is who I am and what I'm all about" kind of thing. Just "Come with me." Even MORE amazing is the brothers' response: "They didn't ask any questions, but simply dropped their nets and followed." Had they heard news of Jesus? Did they have any idea what he was about or who he really was??? We don't know! This passage doesn't tell us, and uses the simplicity of Jesus's request they follow him and the disciples' compliance to emphasize even more their faithfulness from the very beginning. I seriously can't even begin to fathom this. If someone came up to ME and asked this sort of thing, I would have some serious questions. Who are you? Who are you connected with? What are you doing? Why? Why me, for that matter? How did Simon and Andrew do this? I have no idea, to be totally honest. This is definitely a lesson in faith, but I don't even know where to begin to follow it. Should I follow those who come asking things of me without asking for an explanation in response?

This post has more questions than it does anything else, but that's what this passage has always been about for me: the questions. It makes me think about what I would do if a similar question were asked of me today. Just think for a moment about what was at stake for Peter and the others who said "yes": they gave up their livelihood (at a time when life was not easy) and their families (for common folks one of the most important social structures around) to follow someone they didn't know. This would be like someone I didn't know and about whose cause I knew nothing asking me to give up my job, leave my family, and work for him/her. That would take some commitment. Did Peter and Andrew know what they were committing themselves to?

Holy Cross Day 9/14

Today is Holy Cross Day, known in other Christian traditions sometimes as the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. It is a feast (a way church people describe special days) in the church that commemorates the Cross of Christ. Without going into all of the background of the day, just know that it's a moment in the church year when we stop to think about the cross itself. The readings for today are centered around this particular theme of the cross and it's purpose. The Gospel reading for today was John 3:11-17, and it speaks to the purpose of the cross without referring to the cross itself (in other words, it's not a story about Jesus's crucifixion, which is what we might expect on Holy Cross Day).

Some of you may be familiar with John 3:16. I'll quote from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV-it's what we use on Sundays in church) today because it's such a well-known passage and it may jog your memory: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life." I've heard this quoted ALOT. Church folks would quote it left and right. It even seeped into popular culture: when I was in high school, pro-wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin's fans would hold up signs saying "Austin 3:16" in a reference to a victory speech he made. So this whole 3:16 thing must be a big deal.

Often John 3:16 is used as a verse of exclusion--I've heard many people quote this verse to explain that they are saved, because they are one of the "everyone who believes." The emphasis then moves to the everyone else who doesn't believe. The verse becomes a verse about those who don't believe and not about the hope of those who do believe. Because of this kind of background, I sometimes struggle when I hear this verse quoted so often. But then I remember what comes next, and I feel that you can't really take verse 16 without verse 17: "Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." Thus this verse that is used to provoke conflict and controversy--a verse that is used to create an "us" and a "them"--is followed by Jesus's words that he did not come to condemn anyone, but to help everyone! How cool is that? All of a sudden, in one sentence, this passage moves from being one of potential condemnation and exclusion to one of radical hope and welcome.

Throughout Jesus's life we see this kind of hope and welcome--welcoming those whom society had cast out as worthless: the poor, the weak, the orphans, the widows, the women, the children, the everyday working person...these were all people embraced by Jesus in his lifetime, a lifetime of radical love and welcome. After all, isn't that what the cross is all about? The fact that God loves us so much that God became human in Jesus and then died so that death would no longer have a hold on us? Seems pretty hopeful and welcoming to me...

Daily Reading, 9/9

First of all, happy 9/9/9! It only happens once every 100 years, so enjoy it while you can.

Today's reading is taken from the New Testament; specifically, it's Phillipians 2:1-11. Scholars aren't completely in agreement as to whether or not this was one letter or perhaps a combination of texts. Interestingly, today's passage includes an early Christian hymn (verses 6-11). The first two chapters of the book are marked by Paul's joyful tone in his writing to the Phillipians. I have to admit that sometimes Paul can be incredibly dense and hard to read, but in today's passage he makes a point that, I think, is pretty clear. Thus, I'm just going to quote it:

"If you've gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care— then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand." (Phillipians 2:1-4; The Message).

I don't think I need to say more than that; Paul puts it quite nicely!!!

Daily Reading, 9/8

One of the practices of the Anglican Church, of which the Episcopal Church is a part, is the praying of the Daily Office. There's Morning Prayer, Noonday Prayer, Evening Prayer, and Compline, each a service adapted from the ancient monastic practice of praying 8 times a day.

Part of these offices is the reading of scripture-each day there is a selection from the Old Testament, New Testament, and the Gospels, as well as several Psalms. You can find out what the reading for the day is yourself if you follow along the lectionary-a set order of readings found in the Book of Common Prayer p 934. Or you can go to www.dailyoffice.org and find them there as well (it's a bit easier, I'll admit). One of the features of this blog will be reflections on a reading from the Daily Office. This may not happen every day, but I'm aiming for at least four days a week! So check back here often for updates-some reflecions may even come from one of you, or from something we talk about during a GYC meeting. Or I might find a song or video that speaks to the reading for me that I'd like to share. You never know what you'll find...

For today, we have chapter 16 in Mark's Gospel. If you look in your Bible, you may notice "headings" throughout the text. They might say "the Sermon on the Mount" or "God and Abraham Make a Covenant" or something like that. Just so you know, these aren't in the original text. Indeed, chapter and verse markings are later additions. What you might notice in today's readings if you look at the headings might be something like "the shorter ending of Mark" and "the Longer ending of Mark." Verses 9-20 are only found in later manuscripts and, if you look at the resurrection narratives in the other Gospels, you will notice some similarities.

What does this mean? It means that the actual appearances of Jesus after His resurrection are missing from the more reliable Greek manuscripts of the Gospel of Mark! The most we get is the angel telling the women that Jesus will meet them in Galilee, and a reference to Jesus sending the disciples to proclaim salvation-but even then it's a reference and feels somewhat different from the Jesus we meet in the rest of the text.

Does that mean the recurrection isn't true? If the earliest Gospel in the Bible doesn't have stories of Jesus's appearances, how do we know any of this actually happened? The first thing to remember is don't fret. There are three other Gospels in the Bible. I know, I know this sounds like a cop out-it's not! We take the Bible as a whole, not just the bits and pieces. In some cases this "holistic approach" can cause problems when we see contradictions, but in other cases it enhances and deepens our understanding of different texts.

But if we turn to this particular selection from Mark, I think it speaks to what it means to have faith when we know there's an empty tomb, but we don't get to touch the wounds of the risen Lord as Thomas did. We have to take it on faith, which is definitely hard. The women in the Gospel see an angel who tells them "He has been raised." They have to take that on faith-who knows who could have rolled the stone and removed (read:stolen) the body, but it was a possibility! But the women chose to believe-they went and told the other disciples what they had seen-which wasn't Jesus. It was the empty tomb! That's pretty extraordinary, if you think about. The faith of these women was such that they spread the Good News of Jesus's resurrection without having seen the risen Jesus. They saw the empty tomb!

Sometimes, when I'm in a particularly doubting frame of mind, I have to focus on the empty tomb-I can't even bring myself to conceive of a risen Christ. But the empty tomb feels like something I can begin to get a handle on; something I can see. It's the empty tomb that leads these women towards an understanding of the resurrection of Jesus. It's the empty tomb that first brings that fact home to them. It's the empty tomb that opens their eyes to the fact that death no longer has hold on any of us. This empty tomb can lead us to the risen Christ-something to remember when the risen One is hard to see...

What do YOU think?

I read this article recently, and I have to admit that I found it pretty ridiculous. Why? Because I think the reporter is completely wrong. You can read the article here.

Once you've read it, you may wonder why I'm posting it on this website; after all, the article is about 20-somethings, right? This is true, but what's important is that those in high school now are also part of the Millenial or Gen Y generation (the very tail end, it seems, but the age range extends to birthdays in the late 1990s, according to Wikipedia.

What do YOU think about this article? First, it is important to think honestly about our generation (because I too am part of this generation, as crazy as that may seem to some of you guys!). I don't want to say everyone in Gen Y has grown up privileged, because that isn't true. There are so many people our age who are under-privileged, that it would be ridiculous to claim otherwise. We have had unprecedented access to technology and information, that's for sure. With that may have come a feeling of entitlement to knowledge--I know I often feel that way, rightly or wrongly I don't know.

Do you feel entitled to anything? What? Why?

Feel free to shout out in the comments section.

Welcome!

Welcome welcome welcome to the GYC blog! This is a little corner of the web where we can stop and think about our journey together as Grace Youth in Community. I'll use this first blog entry to reflect on a couple of things: the name of the group, and the bible passage I've chosen as our kind of "byline" (it's under the blog's title, in case you hadn't seen it yet!)



Our name. This is a new name for the Grace youth group, and it doesn't come randomly or without intention. Many youth groups throughout the Episcopal Church are known as "EYC," or Episcopal Youth [in] Community (the "in" is sometimes left out). Where I come from, we were known as DYC- Diocesan Youth in Community. EYC seemed a little too generic, and DYC wouldn't make sense because this is our local church youth group. SO...GYC for Grace Youth in Community.

Not only is this a handy short name for the group, but it also says something about who we are and what we are trying to do. We are from Grace. We are youth. And we are in community--in fact, we could change the last word to communities! Each of us is involved in many different communities-family, school, clubs, teams, towns, and in our case the Church. One of the great things about Church, though, is that it can encompass all of these communities--our identity as Christians, as people who believe in and follow Jesus, is an integral part of who we are, and changes the way we interact with everyone. Knowing that the person across from you in lab is also a child of God can make a big impact on how you approach this person. So we are in community with one another, and in the case of this youth group we will wrestle with what it means to be "in community" as a community! No one has to go it alone.


Our byline. Just in case you missed it or forgot it, I'll copy it here:
"My dear children, let's not just talk about love; let's practice real love. This is the only way we'll know we're living truly, living in God's reality. It's also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves." -1 John 3:18-20 (The Message)

You might notice at first that this doesn't sound like your typical Bible language. That's because it's not. This passage is from The Message, which is a modern day paraphrase (meaning it's not an exact translation) of the Bible. It presents God's Word to us in a new way. The Message is what we'll be using in GYC for studying scripture. I hope y'all come to experience God's Message in a new and dynamic way with it.

Why is this passage the one chosen for a description of our group? As I mentioned above, what we're learning in GYC is what it means to be a Christian in community. Community is something with which the author of 1 John was inherently concerned.

When you read the entire book of 1 John (don't worry, it's only about 5 chapters long!), you'll find community concerns throughout the work. It seems that a group in this early church had broken away and deeply wounded the remaining members. There are some hard words said against those who left. Specifically, the splinter group was denying the humanity of Jesus; this was not cool with the rest of the church, thus the unhappy division. That said, if there's two words you take away from this little explanation, they should be community and Jesus.

So what does this have to do with our youth group, you might ask? And furthermore, how does this relate to that passage you just quoted? Good questions. On first read, the passage seems to be about love (which is no small thing!). But what about love? Well, on the one hand love is something that is done in relationship: God loves me, I love my parents, my parents love their kids, I love my friends...you get the picture. While I guess you could say it, "I love" just sounds rather strange-like you're practicing verbs or something. When we say "I love you" or "I love Jesus"--that's when love happens. When we love others. When we love in community.

The author of 1 John is stressing just this: "My dear children, let's not just talk about love; let's practice real love. This is the only way we'll know we're living truly, living in God's reality." We can only be a part of God's reality when we love one another--we can't just talk about it (or write about it in a blog, for that matter!). And, as I explained above, this loving happens in a relationships, in community. Furthermore, how do we learn to love?

One of the big issues for the early church was this Jesus guy. Who was he exactly? Was he just a really spectacular human being? Was he completely divine and only appeared to be human? Or, as would become the official position, was he both completely human and completely divine? Some in the Johannine community (this is what we call the communities described in John's Gospel and in the books 1,2, and 3 John in the New Testament) claimed Jesus was only divine and they left the group. It's interesting to notice the emphasis on God's reality in this passage. We know we live truly when we love, that's when we live in God's reality. Truly. Reality. Clearly the author had a point to get across, and he wanted to make sure no one thought for a minute that Jesus was in no way human. He was human. He lived and loved in a human community, as we learn from the Gospels.

Last, but definitely not least, is the little bit at the end of the passage. "It's also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves. " It would be easy to feel like real community is impossible when our example is none other than the Son of God, but the author of 1 John assures us that loving truly also means loving ourselves--faults and all! He makes it a point to say that our self-criticism often carries some truth, but the fact of the matter is that God loves us ANYWAY. How awesome is that? I may have a tendency to procrastinate, or talk too much (and these aren't examples--these are actual self-criticisms!) but God knows me better than I know myself and God loves me. It is this very love from God that allows me to open myself up to loving others.

Pretty awesome, if you ask me.